Americans were quick to recover from being thankful and the impeding turkey comas to get out to their local dealerships in November, it seems. Throughout the month, auto sales among the top seven largest automakers picked up 3.5% year over year, despite political roiling and uncertainties.

Strong gains in new home construction kept the demand for large pickups soaring, with the three major players all feeling some love (the segment, per Cars.com, gained 9.3% overall). The site noted that that’s the best year-over-year performance for full-size pickups since June.

Midsize sedans — historically the nation’s favorite non-truck — continued to struggle, though small compacts picked up their slack. Midsize SUVs continued to perform overall, though nothing especially noteworthy (outside of an especially strong performance by the Nissan Rogue) graced November.

Read on to see the 10 best-selling vehicles in America from November. All data courtesy of Cars.com.

10. Honda Civic

2016 Honda Civic Coupe | Honda

A significant redesign and more models have helped the Honda Civic dominate in an otherwise down year for small cars, though momentum slowed in November as Honda moved 25,303 units for the month — a 1% gain over November 2015. This puts the Civic up 10.9% on the year to date, at 335,445 cars moved. The Civic Si and Type-R should help bolster sales when they arrive in the coming year.

9. Honda CR-V

America’s best-selling SUV | Honda

The Honda CR-V is new for 2017, as if it needed it (it was the best-selling non-truck in August); the CR-V is up 1.6% on the year, adding to already substantial gains in 2015. In November, the CR-V sold 25,758 units, a step back of 0.7% versus November a year ago. Honda’s leading SUV will likely see its momentum renew once the new models start trickling into dealerships.

8. Nissan Rogue

2017 Nissan Rogue | Nissan

Like the CR-V, Nissan’s Rogue has had some work done in order to keep it competitive. New to the lineup is also a hybrid model, joining the Toyota RAV4 as the only two in the segment with electrification … for now. The strategy seems to have worked; Rogue sales were up 18% in November, at 26,629 units, putting Nissan’s midsizer at 289,427 cars sold on the year-to-date — up 11% versus 2015.

7. Honda Accord

2016 Honda Accord Sedan Touring | Honda

The Honda Accord used November to gain some ground on the Toyota Camry, posting sales gains of 6.3% at 27,182 units sold. This leaves it down 2.9% on the year-to-date, having moved 311,352 sedans since January 1.

6. Toyota RAV4

2016 Toyota RAV4 | Toyota

The RAV4 took the title for the best-selling midsize SUV in November, eking out a sales gain of 2.7% over the year-ago month at 28,116 units sold. This puts it up 11.1% on the year so far, having sold 314,925 year-to-date.

5. Toyota Camry

2016 Toyota Camry | Toyota

The Toyota Camry was overshadowed (again) by its little sibling in November, after its monthly sales of 28,189 dipped 8.9% year-on-year. The Camry has had a rough go as buyers flock to crossovers and SUVs; sales year-to-date are down 9.4% overall at 355,204.

4. Toyota Corolla/iM

2017 Toyota Corolla | Toyota

Coming in at fourth as the best-selling non-truck for November, the Toyota Corolla and Corolla iM (née Scion iM) sold a whopping 28,262 units last month, for a gain of 11.8%. This leaves the lineup at 346,999 for the year so far, a firm 3.7% above last year’s levels.

3. Ram Pickup

2016 Ram 2500 | Ram

Holding its own at third, the Ram pickup line sold 36,885 trucks in November to best the same month of 2015 by a healthy 8%. Year-to-date, Ram has sold 441,862 units to leave its sales for the first 11 months up 8.1% versus the same period of 2016.

2. Chevrolet Silverado

2016 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD Z71 | Chevrolet

The Chevrolet Silverado kept, uh, trucking along through November with sales of 45,280, or 0.6% higher than November ’15 levels. This puts GM’s leading workhorse down 3.2% for the year-to-date with sales of 520,604.

1. Ford F-Series

2016 Ford F-150 Limited | Ford

Ford overcame a slow October with a vengeance, selling 72,089 units in November — up 10.6% and far and away beating second-place Silverado by orders of magnitude. This puts the F-Series at 733,287 units for the year-to-date, a 5.5% gain over the same period of last year.

Read the original article from The Cheat Sheet]]>http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/november-best-sellers-2016.html/feed/0Pour One Out for Mazda’s New, No Longer-Happening Rotary Sports Carhttp://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/mazda-not-happening-rotary-sports-car.html/
http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/mazda-not-happening-rotary-sports-car.html/#respondThu, 08 Dec 2016 13:35:04 +0000Justin Lloyd-Millerhttp://www.cheatsheet.com/?p=735356

The Mazda RX Vision Concept has paved the way for future Mazda models | Mazda

Let’s start out talking about the Mazda Eunos Cosmo. Born from the legendary Cosmo coupe of the 1960s, it boasted a GPS embedded in the center stack (the world’s first mass production system), a touchscreen display known as the “Car Communication System,” which pulled duty as the main control for the navi, radio, climate control, optional cellular phone, and even a built-in television receiver, according to Japanese Nostalgic Car. Oh, and this was 26 years ago, in 1990.

But the Eunos Cosmo was well ahead of its time not only in terms of cabin comforts — it was also powered by a tri-rotor Wankel rotary engine with not only twin, but sequential turbos, and was the only three-rotor Wankel ever fitted into a production automobile. If the early navigation and touchscreens didn’t set the Eunos apart from the luxury sedan conventions, the powertrain certainly did.

The point of this is that Mazda has always done things a little bit differently. Though the Eunos Cosmo phased out, the rotary lived on in some form or another in the RX-7, to be followed up by the RX-8, before the model — and the engine — was retired from the Mazda lineup for the indefinite future.

That future started to gain some clarity when Mazda debuted the knee-weakening RX Vision concept that was — in theory — powered by a rotary engine. Though the concept was instrumental in guiding Mazda’s design language, there were hiccups with moving it to production. Namely, the engine.

Wankel motors use a rotating triangular rotor in place of pistons. Instead of using a wide and/or tall V- or flat-bank of cylinders, rotaries can extract a terrific amount of power out of a relatively small package and can rev happily past the point that most internal combustion engines would be comfortable.

However, this comes with some compromises: The sacrifice of fuel economy, considerable oil consumption, and the occasional and unfortunate habit of chewing through apex seals has all but doomed the Wankel engine’s mass-market chances.

Many hoped the RX Vision would eventually parlay into a Wankel-driven RX-9 | Mazda

It was therefore particularly exciting when it was determined that Mazda had been researching ways to make the rotary engine palatable for the car-buying public at large. But Mazda CEO Masamichi Kogai recently laid those hopes to rest, stating that there were no plans for a larger sports car entry above the MX-5 Miata. Don’t get us wrong; we adore the MX-5. It’s as close to a perfect car as you’re going to get in its price bracket. But it’s hard to argue that it has the same kind of oddball uniqueness that set the RX-7, RX-8, and Eunos Cosmo apart.

However, Kogai didn’t kibosh the rotary outright; he said that there might still be room for it in the lineup, though as a range-extending engine for a hybrid vehicle layout. While that’s still exciting (more so because Mazda doesn’t currently sell an electrified vehicle), it’s not the RX Vision-based RX-9 hoon-mobile that many (including us) had lofty hopes for.

At the end of the day, Mazda has to make money. Although it fields one of the best and most cohesive lineups available, Mazda doesn’t have the sales volume to invest in a high-end, unconventional sports car. With Toyota working with BMW to bring a successor to the Supra to fruition, we’ll get a good litmus test of how the mass market will respond to that segment.

The RX Vision sits pretty | Mazda

Mazda is hardly alone in not delivering on card-carrying enthusiast cars in the vein of the RX-8/Supra/Z. Though Toyota is finally getting back in the game, Nissan has no clear path for its aging Z cars. Honda hasn’t shown any indication in reviving a successor the S2000. It doesn’t seem like the beancounters at Mazda are too eager to make a move there either.

A revival of the glory days of Japan’s intense automotive rivalry would be incredible: The Toyota Supra, Nissan Z, Mazda RX, Honda S2000, and Mitsubishi 3000GT together made for some of the most exciting times in automotive history. But although horsepower is available at its cheapest levels ever, R&D isn’t — and bringing enthusiast cars to market is now a luxury that can only work under auspicious circumstances.

For the rotary, it’s a perfect storm of bad news: They tend to be poor on emissions, large consumers of oil (and fuel) relative to their size, and unreliable once drivers start putting miles on them — virtually every major current trend in automobiles is meant to remedy those three things. But if anyone is going to bring a rotary engine to market, it’ll be Mazda. And we sincerely hope they do, when the time is right.

Holden on Tuesday revealed its redesigned Commodore sedan, a slightly revised version of which will be sold in the United States as the 2018 Buick Regal (shown below).

The only real difference between the Holden and Buick versions will be a more conventional notchback sedan shape for the Regal instead of the Commodore’s fastback look.

The latest Commodore, referred to internally as the NG, also previews Opel’s new Insignia Grand Sport which will be revealed soon and is due for a debut next March at the 2017 Geneva auto show. The two cars will share a production line at Opel’s main plant in Rüsselsheim, Germany.

That’s right. When the redesigned Commodore hits Holden showrooms in early 2018, it will mark the end of four decades of Australian production of the Commodore. The final Australian-built Commodore, the VF, sold in the United States as a Chevrolet SS, will cease production in October 2017 when the Holden plant closes.

Unlike all previous Commodores, the redesigned model rides on a front-wheel-drive platform, namely the lightweight E2XX that debuted in the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu. It means the rear-wheel-drive layout and V-8 performance of past generations will be no more.

2018 Holden Commodore | Holden

As some solace, buyers will be able to opt for all-wheel drive with torque-vectoring. The setup features a pair of electronically-controlled clutch packs on each side of the rear drive unit. This means drive torque is not only split between the axles but also between the rear wheels. The system monitors inputs from vehicle sensors 100 times per second and constantly adjusts to suit the conditions. A similar setup features in the 2016 Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F] Focus RS.

At launch, the range-topping powertrain will be a 3.6-liter V-6 delivering 308 horsepower. The engine will be mated to General Motors Company’s [NYSE:GM] new 9-speed automatic transmission and the aforementioned all-wheel-drive system. Lesser versions will feature a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-4, in either gasoline or diesel form.

The arrival of the redesigned Commodore also marks the demise of the famous Ute pickup body style. There’s still a wagon, though. The good news for American readers is that the wagon body style is expected to make it to Buick showrooms.

As for when we’ll see the redesigned Regal, the likely debut will be next April at the 2017 New York auto show.

He revealed that the new car, code-named the AM-RB 001 and due for delivery in late 2018, won’t feature a single piece of steel in its construction, such is the focus on saving weight. He said the car will be constructed almost entirely from carbon fiber and titanium. Its wheels will be carbon and magnesium and its engine will be aluminum.

Speaking of the engine, Reichman said it will be a naturally-aspirated V-12 with a displacement somewhere between 6.0 and 7.0 liters and ability to rev to 9,500 rpm. The engine will also feature a flat-plane crank ensuring the AM-RB 001 will be the “most incredible sounding car out there.”

Aston Martin AM-RB 001 | Aston Martin

Drive will be to the rear wheels via a sequential transmission sourced from Xtrac. Reichman said Aston Martin picked this design because of its much lighter weight compared to a dual-clutch transmission.

In his interview with Motoring, Reichman also provided a few details on the oft-rumored hybrid component of the powertrain. He described the system as a capacitor-based KERS that can provide an 80-horsepower boost during high-load situations. The KERS also has the ability to start and power the car at low speeds.

Peak power for the AM-RB 001 is expected to be 1,000 horsepower, with this figure roughly equal the weight of the car in kilograms. Top speed, Reichman said, will be upwards of 250 mph. We’ve also heard that the car will produce over 4,000 pounds of downforce and over 4 g of cornering force.

Other tidbits revealed by Reichman include the possibility of traditional side mirrors being replaced by cameras, the concept unveiled in July being 95 percent representative of the final design, and powered gullwing doors being used to aid ingress and egress.

Read the original article from The Cheat Sheet]]>http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/aston-martin-wont-feature-steel.html/feed/08 Important Tips for Warming Your Car in the Winterhttp://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/tips-warming-car-winter.html/
http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/tips-warming-car-winter.html/#respondWed, 07 Dec 2016 13:25:00 +0000Justin Lloyd-Millerhttp://wallstcheatsheet.com/?p=490376

Winter driving | Elio Motors

To quote the Starks, “Winter is coming.” For those in northern climates, this is the time of year when temperatures dive at night only to slightly rise during the day, carrying with them a mass exodus to garages, as drivers attempt to avoid getting caught on summer slicks when the first snowstorm hits.

Winter also means frigid mornings, and for those who are up and out of the house as the early sun begins to creep over the horizon, getting in your car can be a thoroughly unpleasant experience. Traditionally, the go-to remedy to alleviate such discomfort has been to run the vehicle for a few minutes prior to setting off, but that approach has drawn criticism for its potential side effects.

Esquire magazine outlined some of the issues with letting a car idle, arguing that this warming up process may be detrimental to both your health and the vehicle’s, while wronging the environment as well. Although it’s an older list — originally drafted by the publication in 2012 — many of its broader points remain relevant today, even with the increased popularity of alternative fuel options and electrical powertrains.

While remote start systems and heated seats may allow time for windows to de-ice and the cabin to get cozy warm, the misconception that a vehicle needs prolonged periods of time to warm up in order to function properly is utterly preposterous. Here are eight ways you can cut warm up times, while still giving your vehicle the attention it deserves, and the environment a break.

1. Drive it, don’t idle it

Toyota Sienna in snow | Toyota

It’s not recommended from a maintenance perspective, but actually driving the car will warm the engine — and thus the cabin — considerably faster than letting it idle in the driveway. “Idling is not actually an effective way to warm up a car — it warms up faster if you just drive it,” said Bob Aldrich of the California Energy Commission. Though the engine is running at idle, it’s not doing any work. Putting a load on it will help produce more heat at a much more rapid rate. Think of it like riding a bike: Pedaling in a lower gear will eventually warm you up, but pedaling in a higher gear will warm you up much faster, though with greater risk of injury.

2. Take 10, and then begin

Gear wall clock | Chevrolet

According to the Environmental Defense Fund, if you’re going to be stopped for more than 10 seconds, it’s actually worth it to shut down your engine entirely. “After about 10 seconds, you waste more money running the engine than restarting it,” Andy Darrell, deputy director of the EDF Energy Program, tells Esquire. “Switch the car off at the curb and you’ll be leaving money in your wallet and protecting the air in your community.” Many cars now come equipped with stop-start tech anyways, and the short time that you’ll be stationary won’t be long enough for the engine to cool.

3. Idle hands and engine regrets

Symmetrical all-wheel drive | Subaru

Cars, unlike generators, are meant to be driven, so sitting for long periods of time when not in motion can actually be detrimental, according to the Hinkle Charitable Foundation’s Anti-Idling Primer, per Esquire. The organization notes that idling causes the engine “to operate in a very inefficient and gasoline-rich mode that, over time, can degrade the engine’s performance and reduce mileage.” Fortunately, many modern cars have likely addressed this issue to some degree. That being said, it’s still probably a good idea to warm the engine oil slightly before setting off.

3. You’re burning gas and your cash

Cash money | Micah Wright/Autos Cheat Sheet

There’s no way around it: Idling burns up gas while moving nowhere. According to the Anti-Idling Primer, a year of five minutes of daily idling — which, as Esquire reports, causes incomplete combustion of fuel — making it the same as a V8-equipped vehicle burning off 20 gallons of gasoline. This not only produces 440 pounds of carbon dioxide, but it also costs a pretty penny over time. Although V8 motors are less commonplace nowadays thanks to an invested interest in turbocharged technology, that still doesn’t mean you aren’t burning fuel while at a standstill.

4. Idle in your garage at your own risk

Sarah Polley in Dawn of the Dead | Universal Pictures

This is a pretty well-known factoid, but it’s so important that it bears mentioning whenever possible. The burning of gasoline produces carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas that can displace oxygen and, if inhaled in adequate amounts, can cause loss of consciousness, brain damage, and even death. Idling a car in an enclosed space without adequate ventilation — like a garage — can allow carbon monoxide to build up, and if the garage is attached, the fumes can seep into living quarters.

5. Block heaters beat remote starters

Snowstorm | Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Remote starts are amazingly convenient — they allow drivers to turn on their car from the house, allowing the vehicle to warm up while the driver gets all bundled up and ready to leave. However, there’s an alternative that allows for similar benefits without having to burn through so much gas: Engine block heaters. “Remote starters can too easily cause people to warm up their cars for five to 15 minutes, which is generally unnecessary,” said Lori Strothard of the Waterloo Citizens Vehicle Idling Reduction Task Force in Canada. “A block heater, which is designed to heat the engine and can cost under $30, on a timer set to start one to two hours before driving does the trick in very cold climates.”

6. Quick errand idling is trifling

Cars stuck in snow | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Leaving your car to idle while you run inside for a bagel or coffee may not be as effective as you had hoped, and runs unneeded risks and costs. “Leaving your engine running is hard on your pocketbook, produces greenhouse gas emissions and is an invitation to car thieves,” says Natural Resources Canada.

8. No one likes black lung

Smoker lung | American Cancer Society via Getty Images

Overall, idling is bad for your health and the health of others, though it may not feel that way even when it’s negative twenty and everything is iced over. “Exhaust is hazardous to human health, especially children’s; studies have linked air pollution to increased rates of cancer, heart and lung disease, asthma, and allergies,” reads an excerpt from the anti-idling ordinance of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Letting your car idle also contributes to lasting smog problems, which have also been proven to cause some pretty severe public health concerns.

Well, here it is barreling down the highway, with its pair of turbochargers whooshing away while its supercharger whines.

In case you’ve forgotten, the Challenger SRT Hellcat X is a one-off project car from Dodge, built for the folks at Dream Giveaway. They give away two cars at a time (one old, one new) via a raffle draw, with proceeds from the ticket sales donated to charity.

The winner of the crazy Challenger was 71-year-old Dennis Daly of Folsom, California, who ended up buying $110 worth of tickets. He took delivery of the car along with a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T back in July, but not before Dream Giveaway could show off the car’s performance. You’ll want to turn your speakers up before hitting play.

That performance is courtesy of 805 horsepower and 800 pound-feet of torque, which is a nice bump over the stock 707 hp and 650 lb-ft. You might be wondering why such a conservative boost in output considering the car was upgraded with a twin-turbocharger setup.

The likely answer is that the car is running a simpler “series” setup, with the turbocharger outlet feeding into the supercharger inlet. With the stock supercharger being designed for air at atmospheric pressure, the turbos are likely tuned to deliver very mild boost pressure in order to preserve the supercharger and other engine parts.

A little over a year ago, AutoNation made a very bold move. In the wake of headline-dominating recalls from General Motors and Takata and more than a little public pressure, America’s largest vehicle retailer vowed to fix every recalled used car on its lots.

But that was before Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election, when it was still possible that Congress might pass a law that required used car dealers to repair recalled vehicles before selling them to consumers. Given Trump’s anti-regulatory leanings and the Republican-led Congress, AutoNation has now reneged on its promise.

When AutoNation announced its policy–to some fanfare, frankly–the company touted its “customers first” policy. It issued a statement that read, in part:

“A blanket commitment not to sell vehicles subject to a safety recall is not without cost, as adequate parts are not always immediately available, and AutoNation must hold the vehicles in inventory until they are repaired. The company insists that their customers’ protection is worth the investment in the process. They believe that the decision to do so is ultimately the right one, and economic considerations must take a back seat to safety concerns.” [emphasis ours]

Car mechanic | iStock.com

It wouldn’t be quite fair to say that AutoNation’s economic considerations have kicked safety concerns out of the car, but balance sheets are clearly in the driver’s seat. The company now says that if parts are available to fix a recalled vehicle, it’ll be fixed. If those parts aren’t around, though, the car will still be sold. AutoNation says that it still makes a point of informing consumers about open recalls on used cars.

Had Clinton won the election, and had she been able to navigate through a GOP-dominated Congress, the U.S. might’ve implemented a federal law prohibiting used car dealers from selling vehicles with open recalls. As it is, however, AutoNation was the only major retailer to implement a fix-it-or-park-it policy, and that policy was eating into the company’s revenue–thanks in no small part to the number of Takata recalls and the lack of replacement parts. With no federal mandate on the horizon, AutoNation has backed away from its stance.

That said, there will probably come a day when used car companies are forced to repair recalled cars, just as rental companies have been ordered to do. For safety advocates, AutoNation’s turnabout is a setback, but there’s likely to be more to the story.

Read the original article from The Cheat Sheet]]>http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/trumps-win-autonation-recalled-cars.html/feed/0Modern Electric Cars at 20: From EV1 to Bolt EV, Where Are We Now?http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/electric-cars-20-ev1-bolt-ev.html/
http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/electric-cars-20-ev1-bolt-ev.html/#respondMon, 05 Dec 2016 22:15:00 +0000Justin Lloyd-Millerhttp://www.cheatsheet.com/?p=734612

That first EV1 was a high-tech two-seater created specifically to meet California’s then-current zero-emission vehicle rules, intended to set the state on a path toward radically lowering vehicle emissions. But those ZEV rules were ultimately overturned by the state after automakers lobbied successfully with the argument that electric cars were too expensive to build, that buyers didn’t want them, and that there wasn’t adequate public charging infrastructure.

Does this sound familiar?

Just last week, Ford CEO Mark Fields told reporters the company would lobby the incoming Trump administration to delay, modify, or repeal stricter fuel-economy standards—and commented that there was no market for electric cars or hybrids.

Ford’s current lineup of hybrids is solidly in second place among U.S. hybrid sales after various Toyota hybrids—the Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid sedan had its best sales month ever in November—but the company’s efforts in battery-electric cars have been grudging and uncompetitive. Until an updated 2017 Focus Electric was announced, that battery-electric model had the lowest range (73 miles) of any compact electric hatchback on sale and sold solely at compliance-car levels.

But while Ford has always been an also-ran in electric cars, the arrival of the Tesla Model S reset a lot of expectations among consumers about just what an electric car could be. It also alarmed other makers, General Motors among them, sufficiently that they took a closer look at the potential for building cars with high-capacity battery packs made of the latest lithium-ion cells.

Now every major automaker is planning to offer higher volumes of electric cars by 2020—even Toyota, whose strong belief in the superiority of hydrogen over electricity as a way to power cars made it the last major holdout.

So where do electric cars stand today, 20 years after the EV1 emerged into private hands?

The 1991 BMW E1 was an ill-fated foray into BEVs for the Bavarian automaker | BMW

Even if president-elect Trump doesn’t accept the scientific consensus on climate change, which he has called “bullshit” that was created by the Chinese to hurt U.S. industry, the rest of the world is moving toward reducing carbon emissions in every sector—China not least among countries.

However the laws are written, zero-emission vehicles will be increasingly favored by regulators.

And they are far more likely to be plug-in electric cars than hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

(2) Range matters more than many carmakers understood.

In Europe and Asia, electric cars with ranges lower than 100 miles are practical because there’s a clean, reliable, frequent, pervasive mass-transit alternative for many longer trips.

The U.S. has no such thing, so individual vehicles have to serve all possible travel needs short of the distances only an airplane can cover—so less than something like 150 to 200 miles of range is simply a deal-breaker for many buyers.

People don’t drive as many miles as they think they do, surveys show, but confidence in a vehicle’s ability to meet anticipated needs—taking a sick kid to a hospital 40 miles away at 1 am—is an absolute requirement.

Tesla understood this from the outset; it’s never sold a car with less than 200 miles of range. Belatedly, other makers are catching on.

(3) Once they drive them, consumers really like electric vehicles as cars.

Tesla Dealership | Joe Raedle/Getty Images

They’re simply a better way to drive: smoother, quieter, and calmer.

The challenge is simply getting buyers to give them a try—or as it’s known among advocates, the “butts in seats” problem.

Some automakers are addressing this by offering serious potential buyers the loan of an electric car for a full day or a weekend or even a week.

Advocates provide test drives, from letting a neighbor or coworker drive their own car to more formalized and broader events like National Drive Electric Week.

An automobile is the second-priciest item a household generally buys, after the house (or apartment) itself.

That purchase generally only happens every three to seven years, and buyers need confidence that the new vehicle will be utterly reliable, meet all their anticipated needs, and generally not have to be thought about much during its life.

Early adopters aside, that means that attitudes toward a radical new technology like electric carsgenerally fall into a category you might dub, “Let the other guy test it out first and see how it works, and then I’ll think about it next time.”

(5) Automakers now understand that electric cars are real and are coming; they’re just not sure when they’ll be profitable.

2017 Chevrolet Bolt | Chevrolet

Any auto company has to make enough profit on its total vehicle lineup not only to cover the marginal costs of building and selling a car, but also investing in future products.

There’s much debate over whether Tesla is profitable on a per-vehicle basis (and this site doesn’t do financial analysis, so we won’t debate that here). There is almost no debate that Tesla, thus far, hasn’t had a profitable year in more than a decade of existence, and continues to require new capital to fund its aggressive expansion plans.

Even at a cell cost of $145 per kilowatt-hour on launch, as confirmed by GM product chief Mark Reuss, the 2017 Chevy Bolt EV allegedly costs the company $9,000 more to make than it sells for, according to a report this weekend.

That’s not unusual; Toyota too lost money for almost a decade on its hybrid-electric vehicle programs. But it now supplies 50 percent of all the hybrids sold globally, and they are reportedly profitable for the company.

Lithium-ion cells costs historically fall at 7 percent a year, so sometime in the 2020s—the debates over when are endless—battery-electric cars with 200 miles of range should be priced within spitting distance of their gasoline counterparts in many segments. Those gasoline cars may also likely cost more in future years than they do now, with added technology to meet higher fuel-efficiency rules and lower emission limits.

(6) Unexpected stuff changes the picture.

A Volkswagen EV concept from CES 2016 was an effort to steer attention from the company’s diesel problems | Volkswagen

In 2005, while the company was still in stealth mode, no one in the auto industry foresaw the impact of a company like Tesla Motors. And electric cars, denigrated as golf carts for nerds, were at a nadir.

Even in 2010, when it was struggling to sell small numbers of electric Roadsters, much of the auto press denigrated, sneered at, and otherwise ridiculed the arrogant startup engineers from Silicon Valley who thought they could design, build, and sell all-electric cars.

Five years after that, however, the laughing had stopped, though the long-term survival of Tesla as an independent carmaker has yet to be established.

But luxury automakers the world over are now preparing to launch their own Tesla-alikes, both sedans and crossover utility vehicles, while Tesla plans to move into more affordable electric cars at vastly higher volumes. Virtually no one could have predicted that train of events 10 years ago, which is not a long time in the auto industry.

More recently, no one expected that one of the world’s three largest automakers would admit to having routinely and willfully violated U.S. emission laws and lying about it to buyers, dealers, and regulators for eight years. The shock of the Volkswagen diesel scandal was what catapulted VW Group into plans for 30 battery-electric vehicles from its many brands by 2025. It may also have sealed the long-term fate of diesel engines for passenger vehicles in many markets.

Totally unpredictable just two years ago, no?

2016 Tesla Model X | Tesla

(7) This time electric cars are real, but they may come more slowly than advocates would like—and only the daring make predictions on how many and when.

That one stands by itself.

The future is always different than we expect, and while many smart people believe that a “hockey-stick” sales curve will arrive sometime in the next decade, when that may occur remains in furious debate.

Consider the cautionary case of Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, a long-term proponent of battery-electric cars and the force behind the Nissan Leaf, still the world’s highest-selling electric car, with more than 250,000 sold. Ghosn famously forecast that electric-car sales would start to accelerate in 2015, and that 10 percent of all of Nissan’s sales would be battery-electric vehicles by 2020.

That is not going to happen; selling electric cars turned out to be much harder than expected, with resistance from customers, distributors, and dealers, not to mention the challenges of public infrastructure.

Ghosn’s been quiet lately on any electric-car predictions, but the second-generation Nissan Leaf is widely expected to have at least one model with 200 or more miles of range. And the race then, seven years after the first Leaf, will have better cars, more competitors, and more public awareness.

The NIO EP9 was NextEV’s first foray into production vehicles | NextEV

Chinese electric car startup NextEV in November launched the new brand Nio whose first model, the 1,360-horsepower EP9 supercar, is already one of the fastest production cars in the world, having lapped the Nürburgring in just 7:05.12.

But the EP9 is a limited edition model for multimillionaires, which NextEV admits was primarily built to help draw attention to its new brand Nio and highlight the link with the company’s successful Formula E team. It will be sold exclusively in China.

In contrast, future models from Nio will compete in high-volume segments, and they will be sold in the United States.

Speaking with Automotive News (subscription required), NextEV co-founder Jack Cheng said the U.S. will be the first market outside of China that Nio cars will be sold in. And the first volume model due will be an electric SUV to rival the Tesla Model X and similar offerings due soon from Audiand Mercedes-Benz.

The Nio EP9 looks mean. Its SUV will probably look less so. | NextEV

The ace up NextEV’s sleeve will be sharp pricing, Cheng said.

“It’ll be positioned at Audi and BMW but with a Toyota price,” Cheng said of the SUV. He also described its performance as being “as good as or better than the Tesla [Model X].”

The SUV is said to be launching with a 70-kilowatt-hour battery. The closest comparison is Tesla’s Model X 75D which has a 75-kwh battery and 237-mile EPA-rated range.

NextEV is hoping to start sales in the U.S. by late 2018 or early the following year. Production will take place in China.

Read the original article from The Cheat Sheet]]>http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/nextev-suv-model-x-performance-toyota-price.html/feed/010 Cars That Probably Should Not Have Hit the Roadhttp://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/10-cars-that-probably-should-not-have-hit-the-road.html/
http://www.cheatsheet.com/automobiles/10-cars-that-probably-should-not-have-hit-the-road.html/#respondSun, 04 Dec 2016 18:59:00 +0000Justin Lloyd-Millerhttp://wallstcheatsheet.com/?p=413290

Source: Ford

It’s one of the great hypocrisy of fandom: When you guys win, it’s “We,” when they lose, its “Them.”
Honestly, it isn’t that much different in the automotive world. Everyone has their pet brands, and everyone knows that their brands have all made awful, awful mistakes. In almost every business, products come out that look like a mistake as soon as they leave the factory, but due to the auto industry’s inherent exposure to the public, automotive flops tend to be more spectacular than most — and potentially more damaging to the brand responsible.

Here we’ve compiled a collection of 10 of the most high-profile offenders. Although these cars may have seemed right at the time to somebody, they probably should have been put through a little more development — and at least a focus group or two.

1. 1975-’80 AMC Pacer

Source: YouTube

In the 1970s, tiny Wisconsin-based American Motors was strapped for cash, and increasingly relying on its aging Gremlin/Hornet platform (which would eventually underpin its Concord, Spirit, and Eagle models). That’s what makes the Pacer so baffling. On paper, it was a pioneer: The second American car to have rack-and-pinion steering, an integrated rollbar, a longer passenger door for rear seat access, and an interior designed for safety and class-leading space. But in reality, it was “The Flying Fishbowl,” a gawky, unbelievably hot (all that glass), and expensive failure. The struggling company sank $60 million (nearly $360 million today) into developing the car “from the inside out.” Customers took one look at the slow (100 horsepower), heavy (nearly two tons) Pacer, and said “no, thanks.” In 2007, Hagerty Insurance issued a poll asking for the enthusiasts to name the worst car design of all time, and the Pacer was bestowed with the unfortunate honor.

2. 1981-’84 Cadillac Fleetwood V8-6-4

Source: De La Fuente Cadillac via YouTube

Today, GM’s performance cars like the Corvette and Camaro use cylinder deactivation systems in their V8s to hit fuel economy numbers that would’ve been thought impossible a generation ago – and that’s largely because of the failure of Cadillac’s V8-6-4 engine. In order to keep up with rising CAFE standards, Caddy offered a novel and complex electromechanical cylinder deactivation system on its flagship Fleetwood models beginning in 1981. Unfortunately, technology hadn’t caught up with the idea just yet, and it was besieged with warranty issues well after the V8-6-4 left production in 1984. Turns out buyers didn’t want a jerky ride, stalling, or bizarre engine noises from their $16,000 (around $45k today) Fleetwoods after all.

3. 1971-’80 Ford Pinto

Source: Ford

The Pinto was supposed to be Ford’s car of the ’70s; a modern compact perfectly in tune with what buyers wanted. Instead, it nearly destroyed the company. At risk of adding $11 to the manufacturing costs of every car, Ford decided to place the Pinto’s gas tank in a place where it could be punctured by the rear differential and snap at the filler neck in rear-end collisions over 25 miles per hour, spraying gasoline into the interior (a shield to prevent this would’ve added $1 to manufacturing costs), and igniting the car. The reasoning? Ford’s bean counters decided it would be cheaper to pay off any wrongful death claims than fix the problem.

In 1978, Ford finally recalled over 1.5 million Pintos, and began years of slogging through civil suits that would push the company to the brink of bankruptcy. While the Pinto astonishingly soldiered on through the 1980 model year, it’s estimated that as many as 900 people died from the defect.

4. 1995-’97 Suzuki X90

Source: Men and Motors via YouTube

The X90 wasn’t really an off-roader like the earlier Samurai, or a targa-topped sporty car like the Honda Civic del Sol, but sort of a odd and impractical combination of both. It had all the drawbacks of a small SUV (increased rollover risk, road noise), coupled with the worst parts of a sports car, like the conspicuous lack of seating for more than two people. Needless to say, it sold terribly, but found limited success as the choice car for Red Bull — that is, until Red Bull moved on and adopted the Mini.

5. 1989-’91 Chrysler TC by Maserati

Source: WorldAutoMotors via YouTube

In the late ’80s, Chrysler president Lee Iacocca partnered with Maserati in the late ’80s to develop a competitor to Cadillac Allanté (a close runner-up for this list). Astonishingly, the two managed to make a car that was even more underwhelming than the Cadillac. The TC was lightly restyled, K-Car-based, front-wheel drive LeBaron convertible mounted on a shortened (also K-Car-based) Daytona chassis, manufactured in Italy, and branded with Maserati’s iconic trident set inside Chrysler’s Pentastar logo. And instead of a free-revving Maserati engine under the hood, there was an Italian-built version of the turbocharged 2.2. liter V6 that was available in the Dodge Caravan.

Unsurprisingly, the Chrysler TC by Maserati was a bit of an embarrassment for both companies, and it disappeared after just two years and 7,000 examples. Ironically, Chrysler and Maserati are both owned by Fiat today.

6. 1982-’88 Cadillac Cimarron

Source: Cadillac

In the ’80s, the BMW 3-Series was making huge inroads in the U.S. thanks to its combination of luxury, performance, and style. But to GM, it was just an expensive compact, so it responded with what it thought was a BMW-killer: The Cimarron. Little more than a front-wheel drive Chevy Cavalier with leather and a $15,000 price tag (the Chevy sold for $6,400), the public blanched at the Cimarron, and by 1988, it had disappeared in a cloud of ignominy. In the words of Pulitzer-prize winning automotive journalist Dan Neil, “Everything that was wrong, venal, lazy, and mendacious about GM in the 1980s was crystallized in this flagrant insult to the good name and fine customers of Cadillac.”

7. 1997-’02 Plymouth Prowler

Source: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Around the mid-nineties, Plymouth set out to create a factory-rendition of the iconic hotrod. It’s open wheel design, wedge-shaped fuselage, and sloping arches hit all the right hotrod notes… until you opened the hood to see Chrysler’s 3.5-liter V6 and all of its 250 horsepower: The car was more of a rod, but not really a hot one. While 250 horsepower could be written off as respectable when it was released, the lack of a manual transmission humbled the car’s performance significantly, and the $38,300 ($56k today) base price didn’t help matters either. In recent years, Plymouth’s last grasp at relevancy has begun to be reconsidered in enthusiast circles. Astonishing.

8. 1958-’60 Ford Edsel

Source: Teddy Pieper/RM Sotheby’s

The Ford Edsel is one of, if not the most, famous — or infamous — of automotive blunders. But despite being kind of homely and pricey, the Edsel wasn’t actually a bad car. Meant to slot just below Lincoln, Ford sunk $400 million (over $4 billion today) into developing the brand from scratch, hiring experts and market researchers to “find out what the public wants” – without actually showing anyone the car it was building.

When the brand that “Makes History by Making Sense” debuted on a special prime-time program on September 4, 1957, it was met with shock. Even in the late ’50s its styling was considered garish, and its trademark upright grille became known as the “horse collar” in polite company (it was compared to the female anatomy behind closed doors). While history has softened on the brand’s outrageous cars (this one fetched $35,750 at an RM Sotheby’s auction), the Edsel has become a lesson in how not to launch a brand. Ironically enough, the Edsel’s big block V8 soldiered on long after the brand disappeared, remaining available in Lincoln models through 1968.

9. 1985-’92 Yugo GV

Source: Motorweek via YouTube

The Yugo. The pinnacle of automotive imperfection. The gold standard of inferior craftsmanship that gave off the impression “of something assembled at gunpoint.” It’s the car that all crappy, poorly made subcompacts strive to be when they grow up. The Yugo GV (for “Great Value!”) reached our shores in 1985 as the cheapest car in America: $3,995 ($8,500 today). In other parts of the world, the Yugo was known as the Zastava Koral, a Serbian-built clone of a ’70s-era Fiat 124. In America, the engine had a tendency of not working, bits of the car would fall off, and the electrical system seemed to be more for show than anything else – and that was before it left dealerships. Yugo quietly left our shores in 1992, and despite NATO bombing the factory in 1999, the car astonishingly remained in production until 2008.

Today, the former Yugo plant is owned by Fiat Chrysler, and it builds the Fiat 500L there, leading us to believe the factory is haunted and probably never should’ve been rebuilt.

10. 2001 Pontiac Aztek

Daniel Lippitt/AFP/Getty Images

There’s the Edsel, the Cimarron, the Yugo, and of course, the Pontiac Aztek. In an effort to appeal to a younger crowd, Pontiac took a promising concept and cosmetically botched it so badly that its outward appearance scared off buyers before they could get close enough to unlock the damn thing. Apologists say that it was one of the first modern crossovers available, but Consumer Reports thought it was so bad, it abandoned its test car on its grounds. Astonishingly, the Aztek’s profile has gotten a serious image boost among Millennials thanks to its cameo on Breaking Bad. To the kids who don’t remember just how bad they were the first time around: Don’t go anywhere near this hunk of plastic, you’ll regret it.